K B Jandial
India is not new to controversies and these sometime do take a heavy toll, both in terms of lives as well nation’s pride. Recently, the country is witnessing an “exodus” of different kind- a spree of returning awards to protest against “rising intolerance” and spread of “communal poison” in the country. The “exodus” began in the aftermath of most sad and beastly act of lynching of 50- year old Akhlaq by an irate mob on the suspicion of eating beef in Dadri (UP).

straight talk

Since then more than 40 Sahitya Akademi awardees have so far returned their coveted awards bestowed by the autonomous Akademi which is considered as the National Academy of Letters of the country. They constitute a very small section of awardees. These litterateurs are returning their Awards as a mark of their protest against Modi led Central Govt. even when the killing took place in SP ruled UP or congress led Govt. in Karnataka.
Is the protest against mere killing of a Muslim or for other reasons? Some writers even include the murder of Prof. MM Kalburgi by unidentified persons in Karnataka in August 2015. Protesting writers claimed that Kalburgi was killed for his work which had come under fire from fellow Lingayats , RSS, Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sene.
Without diluting the gravity of the ghastly act, is it for the first time that any Muslim was killed by irate and senseless mob? Isn’t it that our post independence history is replete with anti-Muslim riots? Is it the protest genuine or as Arun Jaitley puts it in his blog as “manufactured protest” and “ideological intolerance?” Jaitley sounds more credible in his arguments than the logics given by those who are returning these awards to one- day media limelight.
The Sahitya Akademi Awards are conferred on writers of 24 different Indian languages every year as a mark of recognition of their literary contribution. The selected books are considered as an outstanding contribution to the language and literature to which the books belong. The award carries a plaque, citation and a cash prize of Rs. one lakh. Set up on 12 March, 1954, the Akademi gives prize money which has been raised from initial Rs 5,000 to Rs 1, 00,000 now.
These protesting writers have sent letters to Sahitya Akademi but many of them have not returned the prize money. A few writers have just announced their decision of returning their award, but have not yet formally written to the Akademi. No one has returned the award citation or trophy so far.  But, this is besides the main issue of protest.
Is it a ploy to tarnish Modi Govt.’s image? To what extent they are justified in returning their Award?  There are different reasons for their protest. There are some who claim that they are not safe in the country and don’t enjoy freedom of speech. Another reason given is  the threat from “fundamentalist forces and media terrorism” and growing insecurity among writers. Nehru’s niece, Nayantara Sahgal said, “India’s culture of diversity and the right to dissent was under vicious assault.”
Kashmir is also not lagging behind this exodus. Ghulam Nabi Khayal, a noted writer, poet and veteran journalist from Kashmir who got award in seventies, has also returned it saying that , “I can’t fight these communal forces physically so I have decided to lodge a silent protest by returning the award.” He said, “In Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim is killed on the basis of rumours that he has stored beef in his house, and in Jammu, Kashmiri truck drivers are attacked on the mere suspicion that a cow has been slaughtered in the district. This is not the country that our great leaders had envisioned,” he added.
Are these factors really new and in any manner directly or indirectly induced by Modi Govt.? While the media and the protesting intellectuals are perturbed over the killing of Akhlaq in the Bisara village, there was also a shining example of religious harmony in the same locality. The neighboring Hindu family saved the lives of Muslims on the same day. A Hindi daily reported, “When the mob turned violent and was heading towards the Muslim families, the Hindu family members not only saved them, but also guarded their homes later.”
Is it not a trend that is mostly practiced in the country which speaks high about amity and sanity in the same measure?  How can these intellectuals ignore it while talking about increasing intolerance?  Now, how many of them really thought of returning their awards when scores of riots took place in the country under non-BJP rule in different point of time in the past taking a heavy toll of human lives and property. Why didn’t their conscience prick them then? How can they forget the killing of minorities in many gory incidents at  Turkman Gate, Marichjhapi, Moradabad, Mandai, Nellie, Delhi,  Sikh massacre, Malliana, Hashimpura, Bhagalpur, Gawakadal, Bombay, Godhra and Naroda Patiya.
Why those who are now talking about assault on India’s culture of diversity and the right to dissent became voiceless when Kashmiri Pandits were selectively killed in Kashmir in the early years of Pak sponsored militancy leading to their exodus. Why Gh. Nabi Khayal’s conscience did not rip open and return the Award then? Why did he remain silent on the killing of 36 Sikhs at Chattisinghpora on the eve of the visit of President Clinton? Now, killing of one person in UP and stray incidents of throwing petrol bomb on a truck near Udhampur in the wake of highly provocative open slaughtering of cows in Kashmir has moved him. How can he forget that such condemnable incidents took place in much larger number during Amaranth land row in 2008 but then his conscience did not prick him?  And again when over 110 stone-throwing Kashmiris youth were killed in police actions in the summer of 2010, they were all Muslims, why he did not react? When the militancy was at its peak and the people were killed in the misled notion of Azadi in early nineties, he still did not return the award. Instead, he moved out and became the Chief of Bureau of Pak TV in India to amplify anti-India propaganda.
The literary revolt by a small percentage of Sahitya Akademi Awardees is a politics of the sorts.  Their reported concern on most of the reasons listed out by them appears to be motivated. Those who say that they didn’t enjoy freedom of speech and felt insecure for speaking the truth have forgotten the era of emergency when every institution, from judiciary to media, was trampled. Those who had seen that darkest period and still were not disturbed has no moral right to talk about freedom of expression and intolerance which is much more than what should have been.
Talveen Singh , a writer of repute, has aptly summed up as to why they did not  protest in the past by saying that they were not perturbed as Modi wasn’t the PM then. Ved Rahi, a prominent film maker, a writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee, too has lashed out these protesting intellectuals, questioning their intention. He said that it is politically motivated.
The Bangladeshi writer-in-exile Taslima Nasrin in a recent interview to a national daily, has said what many of the BJP leaders would not have said. She had recently tweeted that there’s a problem with the way secularism has been practiced in India. She candidly explained the Indian scenario of secularism by saying “Most secular people are pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu. They protest against the acts of Hindu fundamentalists and defend the heinous acts of Muslim fundamentalists”.
She said, “Politicians appease Muslims for votes in India. Muslims get so much favour that it angers many Hindus. It’s true that sometimes Muslims get tortured only because they are Muslims. But it happens to other religious communities, too. In Canning, a Hindu village in West Bengal was burnt down by Muslim fanatics in 2013.”
Taslima could not be more blunt when she  said, “If Muslims were brutally persecuted in India, they’d have left India for neighboring Muslim countries like Hindu minorities have been leaving Bangladesh and Pakistan since Partition”. She has nailed right on the head of politics of secularism.
(feedback: kbjandial@gmail.com)

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